THE HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
An Illustrated History
Of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
By Wm. H. Egle, M.D. 1876
Page 967
Erected as a county during the
joint proprietorship of Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, sons of William
Penn, in the spring of 1752. Because of the Walking Purchase, or the
day and a half-day's walk; and this because, by a performance of that
walk, nine-tenths fully of the present county passed from the hands of
its original Indian holders into those of the Proprietaries, this
enabling the latter, by extinguishing the Indian title, to encourage
settlement within its borders, which was the first step towards its
constitution as a political division of the Province. The main facts
in the history of the famous walk have been heretofore given. William
Penn had purchased from Maykeerickkisho and Taughhaughsey, chiefs of
the northern Indians on Delaware," all those lands lying and being in
the Province of Pennsylvania, beginning upon a line formerly laid out
from a corner spruce tree by the river Delaware; and from thence
running along the foot of the mountains, west-north-west, to a corner
white oak, marked with the letter P, standing by the path that leadeth
to an Indian town called Playwickey; and from thence extending
westward to Neshaminy creek, from which said line, the said tract or
tracts thereby granted doth extend itself back into the woods, as far
as a man can go in one day and a half, and bounded on the westerly
side with the creek called Neshaminy, or the most westerly branch
thereof; and from thence by a line to the utmost limits of the aid one
day and a half's journey; and from thence to the aforesaid river
Delaware; and from thence down the several courses of the said river
to the first-mentioned spruce tree," etc. A map however, drawn by
Thomas Holme, sometime surveyor of the Province, illustrating this
historic walk, which, together with other valuable documents bearing
on the transaction, was purchased from the heirs of the Penn family, a
few years ago, by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has, once
for all, put to rest the many erroneous statements extant in books in
reference to the day and a half-days walk. Setting ou8t from
Wrightstown, as was stated, on the morning of the 29th of
September, 1737, the walkers pursued a northerly course, keeping along
the old Durham road to Durham creek, thence deployed westerly, at
about 2 o'clock p.m., forded the Lehigh a half-mile below Bethlehem,
thence walked on in a north-westerly line through the plot of the
present borough of Bethlehem, and passing through the north-east angle
of Hanover township, Lehigh county, into Allen township, halted at
sundown, not far from the site of Howell's mill on the Hockendauqua.
Near their place of bivouac was an Indian town, at which resided
Tishekunk, the counsellor of Lappawingoe Next morning, after having
caught their horses which had strayed, they resumed the walk, and
having crossed the Blue mountain at the Lehigh Water gap, after the
lapse of six hours accomplished their task as related. The distance
travelled did not exceed sixty or sixty-five miles. From the northern
extremity of the line thus run by the walk, Surveyor Holme ran a line
parallel to the head line of the previous purchase near Wrightstown,
in a north-easterly direction to the mouth of the Lackawaxen-thus
ending William Penn's purchase of 1686, whereby there passed into the
hands of the Proprietaries, past all claim for ever from the side of
the Indians, the upper portion of Bucks, full nine-tenths of present
Northampton, a large slide of Carbon, and the fourth of Monroe and
Pike each, containing together, at the lowest estimate, an area of
twelve hundred square miles.
The consummation of this
purchase, by walking, which was done with a determination of purpose
on the part of the whites not anticipated by the Indians, is usually
regarded as one of the causes which led to the war of 1755; at any
rate, as far as that was prosecuted within the limits of the disputed
walking purchase.
Northampton County was erected
by virtue of an act of Assembly passed March 11th, 1752.
It was divided from the county of Bucks, one of the original (3)
counties of Pennsylvania, "by the upper or north-western line of
Durham tract, to the upper corner thereof; thence by a straight line
to be run south-west-wardly to the line dividing the townships of
Upper and Lower Milford; thence along the said line to the line
dividing Philadelphia and Bucks counties; and thence by a line to the
extremities of the said Province." When the county was erected, and
for eighty years afterward, Northampton comprised all the territory
within its present limits, and all of what is now embraced by Lehigh,
Carbon, Monroe, Pike, Wayne and Susquehanna, and parts of Wyoming,
Luzerne, Schuylkill, Bradford, and Columbia counties. It was named by
Thomas Penn, who, in a letter from England, dated September 8th,
1751, to Governor Hamilton, says: "Some time since I wrote to Dr.
Graeme and Mrs. Peters to lay out some ground in the forks of Delaware
for a town, which I suppose they have done, or begun to do. I
desire it may be called Easton, from my Lord Pomfret's house, and
whenever there is a new county, it be called Northampton."
The same act authorizing the
erection of Northampton county provided that Thomas Craig, Hugh
Wilson, Thomas Armstrong, and James Martin, or any three of them, were
to purchase and take assurance to them and their heirs of a piece of
land, situate in some convenient place, at Easton, or Lehietan, in the
"Forks of the river Delaware," in trust and for the use of the
inhabitants of the said county, and thereon to erect and build a court
house and prison, sufficient to accommodate the public service of the
said county, and for the ease and conveniency of the inhabitants.
Three hundred pounds was raised by tax for building the court house,
erected in 1763, and a jail in 1754. The first court was held in
June, 1752.
The
"Forks of the Delaware"
was the name long given to that triangular tract of country included
between the Delaware and its west branch, the Lehigh, on the east,
south, and west, and the Blue mountain on the north, including,
therefore, all of present Northampton, excepting Saucon and Williams
townships, and Hanover township in Lehigh county. In a more
restricted application the site of Easton and it immediate vicinity
were designated as the Forks.
The second court held was a
court of record, October 3, 1752, before Thomas Craig, Daniel
Brodhead, Hugh Wilson, James Martin, Aaron Depui, and John Van Etten.
The commissioners chosen for the county were Robert Gregg, Peter
Trexler, and Benjamin Shoemaker. The assessors elected were Frederick
Scull, George Custard, John Holder, James Ralston, John Walker and
Joseph Everhart.
Northampton county lies
between the Kittatinny mountain, originally called by the Indians
Kautatinchunk, i.e., the main or principal mountain on the north and
the South mountain on the south. The Blue mountain is a very regular
ridge, nearly uniform in height, averaging twelve hundred feet, and is
capped by compact gray and reddish sandstone. The southern portion of
the county is mountainous and uneven, being traversed by the irregular
chain of hills called Lehigh hills, or the South mountain. These
hills are chiefly composed of gneiss and other primary rocks, which
are overlaid by limestone in some of the narrow valleys. Iron ore is
found at various points in the hills. North of these hills is a broad
belt of the great limestone formation of the Cumberland valley, which
stretches from the Delaware, south-westward into Maryland and
Virginia, having a soil of the most fertile and productive character,
and a comparatively level surface. Iron ore is abundant along the
south side of the Lehigh. The northern border of the limestone
formation extends eastward from the Lehigh, at Siegried's bridge, ;by
Bath and Nazareth, to the Delaware river at the mouth of Martin's
creek.
page 969
First house in Bethlehem-erected 1741
From this point to the base of
the Blue mountain the rocks formation is slate, excepting a narrow
point of limestone on the Delaware, at the mouth of Cobus creek, below
the Water gap, which, after extending a short distance westward, sinks
beneath the overlying slate. The surface of this slate region is
generally hilly, and the soil but moderately productive. Extensive
slate quarries have been opened in this county, which yield slate of a
superior quality, both for roofing and for manufacture into school
slates.
The Delaware and Lehigh rivers
both pass through the Blue mountains by gaps apparently torn by the
mighty force of the rushing waters coming down from the country
above. The mountain flanking these gaps is high and precipitous,
rising almost perpendicularly from the water, and presenting
magnificent views of wild and romantic scenery. The look-out from
their summits affords extensive and beautiful prospects. Nearly
midway between the Delaware and Lehigh rivers there is a singular
opening or pass through the mountain, called the German settlers Die
Wind Kaft, the Wind gap, through which no stream passes, but the
almost level crest line of the mountain is here depressed nearly as
low as the country on each side, forming a notch in the mountain of
peculiar convenience for the passage of travelers and teams, and
toward which the leading roads on both sides converge and pass through
in one great thoroughfare. Between the Lehigh Water gap and the Wind
gap is Die Kleine Kaft, Little gap, and Smith's gap.
Northampton county is
unsurpassed by any in Eastern Pennsylvania in fertility of soil and in
improvements of various kinds. The general appearance of the county
indicates prosperity and plenty. Wherever the traveler turns his eye,
he sees substantial and well built stone houses, spacious barns, fine
churches, comfortable school houses, and beautiful orchards laden with
fruite in their season, demonstrating the characteristic thrift and
independence of the German farmer.
The first settlers within the
limits of the present Northampton county were Scotch-Irish, or Ulster
Scots, descendants of those Scotch colonists whom the English
government planted in the north of Ireland, in the province of Ulster,
in the times of James I. In 1728, John Boyd, who had married Jane
Craig, went with Colonel Thomas Craig, from Philadelphia to the Forks
of Delaware, and settled at a place formerly called the Craig
settlement, at the springs of the Caladaque
(Catasauqua) creek, in the present East
Allen township. Boyd was followed by others of his countrymen, among
whom were Hugh Wilson and Samuel Brown. In 1731, there had
accumulated a sufficient community to form a respectable settlement,
says the Rev. John C. Clyde, in his "History of the Irish Settlement,"
and there is just reason for believing that these pioneers were
organized a church by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, under the
ministry of the Rev. Eleazer Wales, as early as 1731. The Rev.
Richard Webster, in his notes of the "early history of Allen
township," says, that "William Craig and Thomas Craig appear to have
been the principal settlers; their residence was not far from where
the Presbyterian church in Allen township now stands. Other men of
property, influence, and religious character, were John Ralston,
Robert Walker, John Walker, John McNair, John Hays, James King,
Gabriel King, his only son, eminent for piety; Arthur Lattimore,
(founders of the town of Bath), Hugh
Wilson, William Young, George Gibson, Andrew Mann, James Riddle, John
Boyd, Nigel Gray, Thomas Armstrong, and widow Mary Dobbin." Hugh
Wilson, who was one of the commissioners appointed to select the site
of Easton, was born in Ireland, in 1689, and is claimed by his
descendants to have been the son of a Scotch laird. (He
was founder of the town of Northampton). He died on his
farm in Allen township, in 1773. Wilson was a man of influence in the
county , and held in high esteem by his own people.
James King died in 1745, thus making
Horner's Cemetery, of the settlement, the OLDEST cemetery in
all of Northampton County.
Also buried in the cemetery is George
Palmer, who was Pa's Surveyor General and had Palmer
Township named after him. Thanks to Peggy Moser
for the updates 2010 -01
A second wing of the
Scotch-Irish, settled near the mouth of Martin's creek, in Mount
Bethel (somewhat later than did the first mentioned), and here founded
what was long known as the "Hunter Settlement." Brainerd's cabin
during his career among the Delaware's of this section (1744), is
located by tradition about a mile north by east from the mouth of
Martin's creek. Brainerd occasionally ministered to the Scotch-Irish
seated on the springs of the Caladaque,
(Catasauqua) as well as to those of Mount
Bethel.
The Germans followed the
Scotch-Irish into the borders of the present county as early as 1739;
a few years earlier, perhaps, into the two townships, south of the
West Branch of Delaware or Lehigh.
In 1752, when Northampton
county was organized, there were nearly six thousand white settlers
within the then extensive borders of the county-about three hundred
Dutch, or Hollanders, several French families, eight hundred
Scotch-Irish, and about four thousand Germans. In process of time the
Germans measurably supplanted the Scotch-Irish. The Germans
constitute at present about one-ninth of the population. It is a
fact, once stated for all, that the Germans have supplanted the
Scotch-Irish throughout the entire valley of the Kittatinny, from
Easton to Maryland.
The first inhabitants of
Northampton county were scarce beginning to enjoy the advantages
which the organization of 1752 brought with it, when in the summer of
1755 the peace in which they had thus far lived was rudely broken. It
was French ambition and French aggression which provoked the first was
in which the followers of William Penn engaged with the aborigines.
Whatever other considerations may have moved the Indians to entertain
unfriendly feelings towards the descendants of a man whose memory they
revered-whether loss of confidence in their integrity, or a sense of
injury, or a wild hope of regaining their ancestral seats, it is a
question whether they would have followed up their feelings by acts of
open hostility, had they not been incited by the insidious
representations of the French of Canada. An alliance with the Indian
tribes of the Province, the latter well knew would enable them to
carry on their military operations in the Ohio country successfully,
and to realize their schemes of territorial aggrandisement. in this
way, then, were the Delawares and lesser tribes residing on the
Susquehanna and eastward seduced from their allegiance to the British
crown, and led to inflict much suffering on the white settlements
which stretched along the line of the Blue mountain, from the romantic
point at which the Delaware has broken their barrier, to the confines
of Maryland. Braddock's defeat was not only a fatal termination of a
campaign which it had been hoped would inflict a decisive blow upon
the enemy, but proved the direct means of encouraging the disaffected
Indians to make the frontiers of the Province the scene of a predatory
warfare, win which Old Northampton was severely scourged at intervals
during a period of full two years.
The massacre of eleven
Moravians at the Gnadenhutten mission (Lehighton, Carbon county,
Pennsylvania ), in the evening of the 24th of November,
1755, was the first indication the inhabitants of the county had that
the enemy was at their doors. Its remote settlements, and among these
the scattered plantations that nestled in the small valleys
immediately north of the Blue mountain, drained by the Big creek and
its branches, by Brodhead's creek, McMichael's and Cherry creeks, and
the Pennsylvania Minisinks, suffered most severely in the winter of
1755-56. So emboldened were the savages grown in consequence of their
successful forays, that in January of the last mentioned year, their
scalp yell was heard within the precincts of the Moravian plantations
at Nazareth, and Bethlehem was only saved from destruction at their
hands by the exercise of extreme prudence, and by incessant
watchfulness on the part of its inhabitants.
page 973
Mr. Culver's and Hartman's
family are come to us with our wagons, and lodge partly here in
Nazareth, partly in the tavern. Our wagons, which were to fetch some
corn, were met by Culver's, three miles this side of his house, and
when they heard this shocking news they resolved to return and carry
these poor people to Nazareth. They say also that the number of
Indians is above two hundred. We want your good advice what to do in
this present situation and circumstances, and desire, if possible,
your assistance." Col. Rec.vi.757
Timothy Horsfield, a justice
of the peace and a resident of Bethlehem, wrote to Governor Morris,
under date of December 12, 1755, in these words:
"Hoeth and his family are cut
off, only two escaping. The houses, etc., of Hoeth, Brodhead, and
others, are actually laid in ashes, and people from all quarters are
flying for their lives, and the common report is that the Indians are
two hundred strong.
"Your Honor can easily guess
at the trouble and consternation we must be in on this occasion in
these parts. As to Bethlehem, we have taken all precaution in our
power for our defence; we have taken all our little children from
Nazareth to Bethlehem for the greater security, and these, with the
rest of our children, are near three hundred in number.
"Although our gracious King
and Parliament have been pleased to exempt those amongst us of tender
conscience from bearing arms, yet there are many amongst us who make
no scruple of defending themselves against such cruel savages. But,
alas! what can we do, having very few arms and little or no
ammunition; and we are now, as it were, become the frontier, and as we
are circumstance, our family (Economy) being so large, it is
impossible for us to retire to any other place for security.
"I doubt not your Honor's
goodness will lead yo to consider the distress we are in, and speedily
afford us what relief shall be thought necessary against these
merciless savages..
P.S.-Hoeth's Brodhead's, etc., are situated a few miles over the Blue
mountains, about twenty-five or thirty miles from Bethlehem."
William Parsons, of Easton,
writes to the Hon. James Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, Esq., under
date of December 15, 1755: "The settlers on this side of the mountain
all along the river side are actually removed, and we are now the
frontier part of the country. Our poor people of this town have quite
expended their little substance and are wearied out with watching, and
were all along in hopes government would have taken measures for their
relief and for the security of the town. But now, seeing themselves
as well as the town neglected, they are moving away as fast as they
can. So that if we have no help, nor orders from the commissioners to
use means to get help, in a day or two we shall every one of us be
obliged to leave the town, and all that we have in it, to the fury of
the enemy, who, there is no reason to doubt, are lurking about within
sight of us. Besides the losses which I have reason to sustain in
this calamity, I have expended what little stock of cash I had, in
public services, so that I am obliged to send this by private hands,
not being able to pay a person to go express with it. Pray, do
something, or give some order for our speedy relief, or the whole
country will be entirely ruined. if you had but given encouragement
to some persons that you could have confided in, for their employing
people just for our present defence, till you could have agreed on a
general plan, all this part of the country might have been saved,
which is now entirely lost, and the enemy are still penetrating
further and further, and if immediate measures are not taken, they
will very soon be within sight of Philadelphia. This is my real
opinion, for all the country is flying before them, and no means are
employed to stop them." Col. Rec., vi, 761.
page 974...
page 985...
Easton, the seat of justice of
Northampton county, is situated at the confluence of the rivers
Delaware and Lehigh(therefore in the very forks of Delaware),
extending from the mouth of the latter along the former nearly half a
mile to the Bushkill. It is therefore surrounded by water on three
sides. For advantages of position as well as beauty of scenery it is
unsurpassed by any inland town of Pennsylvania . Its site was
selected, by order of the Proprietarie, by Nicholas Scull, Surveyor
General, and it was laid out by William Parsons in the spring of
1752. Mr. Parsons was called by Thomas Penn from Lancaster to
superintend the erection of the proposed new town; was at first
invested with all the offices, proved an energetic agent for his
employer, and died in December, 1757. He lies buried within the
limits of the beautiful place over which he watched so faithfully in
its infancy. there is every reason to believe that there was a
cluster of dwellings in the forks of the Delaware when the site of
Easton was selected, as David Martin, of Trenton, as early as 1739,
had been granted a patent for ferrying over Delaware at this point.
Points of interest.
